1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to educational toys and more particularly relates to educational toys for teaching sequencing principles.
2. Description to the Related Art
Toys generally provide entertainment for children during important development years. Often parents and educators utilize toys to teach children educational principles. Certain toys can be designed to target the educational needs and the developmental skills of specific developmental age groups. In certain instances, traditional toys may be altered to include specific educational elements intended to advance a child's capabilities. Such improvements can significantly contribute to the child's overall development and can increase the child's capacity for continued learning.
A traditional toy that has amazed and entertained audiences of all ages for more than one hundred years is the Japanese puzzle box. The puzzle boxes are wooden boxes traditionally decorated with geometric designs. Typically, the puzzle boxes have been used as jewelry boxes or “secret boxes” to guard special items. From the outer surface, the puzzle boxes appear to be completely enclosed because the boxes have no hinges, no locks, and no lids or coverings. Consequently, the user must learn a special sequence code designed specifically for each puzzle box prior to opening the box.
The sequence code to open the box is encrypted in the structural design of the side panels of the puzzle box. More specifically, the side panels are designed to uniquely engage adjacent side panels. As a result, the side panels may only be removed in a particular order because specially designed side panels block or prevent the removal of earlier inserted side panels.
For example, a side panel typically comprises grooves configured to slideably receive lips of an adjacent side panel. The grooves facilitate sliding the side panel in a particular direction relative to the adjacent side panels. The side panels generally slide or move in different directions and in various ways. Side panels may include one or more holes and/or one or more corresponding protrusions to complicate the sequence code of the puzzle box. The holes and protrusions create built-in stops to hold the side panels in place. The uniquely formed side panels, consequently, allow the puzzle boxes to have a distinct sequence code, or panel order, in order to completely assemble or disassemble a particular puzzle box.
The puzzle boxes, however, have various disadvantages from an educational perspective. Because the puzzle boxes typically contain geometric markings, the side panel sequence may be difficult to learn or distinguish, dramatically increasing the difficulty level of the toy. As a result, small children fail to benefit from the elements of problem solving and perseverance that motivate young adults with more advanced skills to decode the puzzle. In addition, the puzzle boxes only focus on one educational skill: correctly assembling the various panels to form a box. Other skills such as sequencing, counting, reading, communication, and the like are completely neglected.
From the foregoing discussion, it should be apparent that a need exists for an apparatus, system, and method that improve the traditional puzzle box in order to teach educational principles. Beneficially, such an apparatus, system, and method would teach sequencing principles as a multi-sided enclosure is assembled and disassembled. Additionally, various panels of the multi-sided enclosure would include educational material and coded elements to supplement the educational impact of the toy.